Canada's embassy in Washington was evacuated Friday morning after a suspicious package was found in the mail room, embassy officials said.

After the area was sealed off, a Secret Service bomb squad determined the package was “not dangerous and removed it from the premises,” said spokesman Chris Plunkett. All embassy personnel, about 300, returned to work shortly before 11 am..

Pennsylvania Avenue, the broad route linking the Capitol to the White House, was closed and downtown traffic snarled as a clutch of fire trucks and police cordoned off the area.

The Secret Service – responsible for the safety of foreign diplomats as well as the president and cabinet – ordered the massive white landmark embassy evacuated shortly after 9:30 am.

Topics

Next story

| Learn More

Discover content from The Globe and Mail that you might otherwise not have come across. Here we’ll provide you with fresh suggestions where we will continue to make even better ones as we get to know you better.

You can let us know if a suggestion is not to your liking by hitting the ‘’ close button to the right of the headline.